VirtualBox — Like a Free PC (Sort Of)
Sun xVM VirtualBox is a free alternative to VMWare Server. This free virtualization tool allows you to run guest operating systems under Windows or Linux. Here’s a screen grab of me running Ubuntu Linux under Windows XP (click to enlarge):
VirtualBox is easy to set up, and a great way to try out operating systems without having to repartition your hard drive. And it seems to run well on low-end hardware — my laptop is 3 years old, and was a low-end budget box back then. It’s running a 2 ghz Sempron processor (32 but, single core) with 1 gb of memory, but the Linux vm runs just fine – -even though I’m only giving it 384 mb of RAM. A Windows XP vm I created also runs fine on this modest hardware. Getting sound and networking to work are easy, and the ‘guest’ OS can be run in full screen mode, windowed mode, or the strange ‘seamless’ mode that lets you sort of combine the host and guest desktops. VirtualBox is a useful tool, and a fun toy that’s easy to use. Did I mention it’s free?
